Little Damian

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Jason loudly swore as he summoned his All Blades, "What the hell is that thing?"

He did not expect an answer, but Athanasia did have one, "It's the Bat-God, Barbatos. It's trying to crossover into our world using Damian's body."

As she said this, the Barbatos let out a roar, and something that can only be described as anti-music escaped his vocals. It was no doubt intending to stun and confuse Jason before it attacked. Jason dodged, grabbed Athanasia and ran. He wasn't a fool. He knew an enemy that he couldn't beat into submission when he saw one.

Barbatos did not follow, as Jason willed a window into existence and jumped out. He was falling again. But now he was in control of the nothingness. So he forced it into a living room. Into the Wayne Manor's living room and angled himself to fall on a sofa.

"How did you do that?" Athanasia marvelled, "You bent this realm to your will!"

"I don't know what this realm is supposed to be, but I am an All-caste who jumped into the Well of All. Once I was found worthy, the Pool of All is a tool that works with me to defeat evil."

"Yout can't defeat Barbatos," Athanasia replied.

"I sensed that I am intuitive that way," replied Jason, "But seriously, that's not my objective. I need to get your soul out of here."

"You can't. They tried to use my body as a host for Barbatos. They failed because my aunt had corrupted my body too much. But my sacrifice worked well enough to anchor Barbatos here. We are connected. That's why I know the things I know. It's not that he's sharing and his mind is vast. I will be driven mad if I try to look into his mind too much. But things closer to my existence I can comprehend. He needs Damian."

"But why?"

"Because we are the children of the Batman," replied Athanasia.

"So why not just use Bruce as a host," wondered Jason, "Why to go for the kids when you can go for big B?"

"Because Bruce Wayne would exist with or without Batman. Damian and I would not."

"I don't understand," admitted Jason.

"If you go back in time to the night my father lost his parents and stopped his parents from getting killed, you would stop Batman from being born. Right?"

"Right."

"Bruce Wayne, even without being Batman, might take in Nightwing as a foster child. Might even take you in. Maybe it's unlikely, but it's possible. But my mother would never give Bruce Wayne a second look if he wasn't Batman. Sure he's rich and maybe she would conspire with my grandfather to take part or all of his fortune and put it to use for their cause. But she would not think him worthy to father, the scions of the great Ra's Al Ghul. We wouldn't exist without Batman."

"Barbatos is linked to Batman. As we are the children of the Bat, we are its ideal vessels. We are the meat suits it can wear to enter our world. Except, my blood is too corrupted. So I was an unworthy vessel. But Damian is worthy."

"I see," Jason didn't know what else to say, he really hated magic sometimes. Although he wasn't sure if what was happening was exactly magic, that was unimportant, "You need to come with me."

"I can't," just as she said that the room of the living room collapsed and Barbatos landed, "Even if I wanted to live again. I couldn't escape this place. But perhaps I can do something…" with that she ran towards Barbatos.

"Stop!" Jason ordered, but he would feel the Pool of All respond to her and aid her in her goal, it propelled her forward and forced her to collide with Barbatos.

The moment Athanasia connected with Barbatos, Jason lost all sense of time and space. He wasn't unconscious, but he simply wasn't sure if he was standing or sitting. Whether he was upright or upside down. He also couldn't tell if time was moving slowly or fast or moving at all. Then he was wet and lying down with his eyes closed.

He opened his eyes slowly but not slowly enough because he was confronted by blinding light. He quickly closed his eyes again. But not before he saw the displeased faces of the Replacement and Damian.

"Stop pretending to be asleep!" Damian whined, "What were you doing?"

"More importantly, where were you?" the replacement asked, "This pool is ankle-deep, but you disappeared underwater. Then you slowly reappeared as if you were floating up from a deep pool."

"Well, umm… it's magic," Jason replied as he slowly opened his eyes again. That was the only explanation he was willing to offer. He turned to Ducra, "There was no Behemoth. The thing keeping Athanasia's soul was something called Barbatos."

Ducra gasped but quickly recovered herself, "What happened? I cannot feel the little girl's soul anymore."

"She said that Barbatos needed Damian's body to crossover to our world. She said the monster tried to use her first but failed because she was too corrupted. But she was acting as an anchor. She ran towards it when she realised the Pool of All gave me some control over whatever dimension we were in and as soon as she collided with him, the world… disappeared..." Jason wasn't certain how to describe the last part but disappeared seemed right.

Ducra nodded, "The girl has passed on. She cannot be brought back. Barbatos is a cosmic entity. The waters of the Pool of All has something called the tenth metal. The tenth metal is the metal of pure possibility. It is what gives the Pool of All the power to do what we need it to do, to carry out our mission. But it isn't powerful enough to destroy Barbatos."

"However, it was clearly powerful enough to destroy the spell that was anchoring Barbatos to this wold, but in doing so, it also caused the girl's soul to… I would like to think her soul passed on. At any rate, she's beyond resurrection," Ducra turned to Damian, "Now you are our only concern. Because if Barbatos wants you, he won't stop that easily!"